Jack Kilby....A tribute to a great mind

Jack Kilby........A tribute to a great mind

There are not many who contributed more to our modern society than Jack Kilby. If you are unaware, Jack invented the integrated circuit.

Kilby constructed a prototype of the integrated circuit in September, 1958. It was a silver sliver (a chip, you might say) of germanium with wires sticking out of it, glued to a glass slide about the size of a thumbnail.

Kilby died in 2005 in a world where microchips permeate every aspect of our daily life, from the inner space of our bodies to the outer space of the cosmos, at home, at play and on the job, in our cars, in our ears ... indispensable.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jack Kilby at an awards banquet in Dallas a few years before he passed away. My old friend Ray Chapman, Uncle Ray to most that know him, was being honored for his contribution to the EWaste or electronic waste recycling industry. Ray basically invented electronics recycling as we know it today, as far as I know. Anyway, Jack Kilby had made a presentation at the banquet and came off the podium to shake some hands and talk to the folks attending. Ray had a new digital camera, remember we are talking 1992 or thereabouts, so I talked him into letting me use it to get a shot of me shaking the hand of the great man, Kilby.

We got it all cued up for my picture with one of my heroes, and the camera wouldn't work! After a few tries with no success, Mr. Kilby said in his low and slow southern drawl..."prolly neeeeds a baaaattery". Now what do you think was going through the mind of this genius when he came to this simple conclusion?

The Importance of Recycling in Today’s World, MTBC Newsletter April 2009

The Importance of Recycling in Today’s World, MTBC Newsletter April 2009

Did you know tons of electronic equipment is being dumped on a daily basis and handled improperly causing many, many risks? Stored data on these computers can be recovered by someone else, not to mention the extremely toxic affect on the environment once in the earth’s surface. The majority of hard drives contain recoverable data including company financials, credit card numbers, medical records, and sensitive e-mails. There are hundreds of millions of obsolete computers in the U.S. today. Old technology is the fastest growing refuse problem in the world with an annual growth rate of 3 to5 percent. Do we want to be knee deep in monitors and circuit boards?
One of the trends causing a terrible hazard condition for the earth is third world dumping. Countries like Asia and Africa do not have the infrastructure to handle used, recycled electronics. There, labor is cheap and environmental regulations are lax. Electronics are dumped in a hazardous manner causing severe pollution, spoiled drinking water and grave health problems. Did you know that landfills are a major source of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas?
Does your company want the public embarrassment of not complying? How about the threat of expensive litigation for non-compliance? Today, companies can face hefty fines and lawsuits as a result of new e-waste regulations. And numerous new bills are already in the works through legislation. Municipalities are now taking the lead to stem a costly and polluting deluge of high-tech trash. Mandatory state-wide solutions such as “producer take-back” initiatives that hold manufacturers financially responsible for disposing their electronic products once they are worn out are on the rise.
The best product lifecycle management programs re-purpose end-of-life, surplus and obsolete electronic components back to operation for reuse while observing proprietary concerns of the manufacturers. To extend the lifetime of a product is the best way to save energy and keep our landfills clean. Companies need a critical supply chain partner that is certified and meets the particular needs of its customers.
What is considered e-waste? It includes computer processing units, monitors, televisions, printers, scanners, copy and fax machines, phones and electronic game units. Putting these products into the wrong hands - such as low-wage workers in third world countries can mean unsafe handling of the toxic materials that can spell disaster. Restrictions on the use of potentially hazardous materials, such as lead, in electronic products are spreading worldwide. In response, electronics manufacturers have had to spend substantial time, effort and money to prepare to comply with applicable legislation.Granted, the cost of recycling these products is a very expensive proposition. But for instance, computer-maker Dell recently bowed to formally support producer take-back legislation nationwide after aggressive pressure from environmental groups. By 2009, Dell expects to have taken back 275 million pounds of its product, according to a company spokesman. So the recycling business is going to keep growing by leaps and bounds. Worldwide, the e-waste and e-recycling market will grow from$21.8 billion in 2006 and reach $30.2 billion in 2008.
Recycled cell phones are playing a critical role in the spread of wireless communications across the developing world, where land lines can be costly or unavailable. There is a rapidly increasing global market for refurbished cellphones with more than 2 billion subscribers in the world. With Americans trading in their phones for fancier models every 18 months on average, the supply of used but perfectly functional phones is enormous. Recyclers find about 60% of the phones that come in are reusable and the rest are used for parts or material recovery.
So if we are diligent and creative with recycled products, it will have an enormous healthy benefit on the earth and all mankind for future years. Companies need to make plans now to take care of the situation before stricter laws and expensive costs catch up with them. They should team up with a certified partner that recycles all types of commercial electronic equipment and material, including all information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, mainframes, PCs, switches, routers, interactive voice response units, automatic call distributors, monitors, printers, fax machines, modems, cellular phones, board level components and various other types of plastic and metal. Going green will soon no longer just merely be a choice. It will be a mandatory responsibility for every company.
BCD Electro is a technology recycling solutions provider employing environmentally sensitive methods for recycling technology equipment, integrated circuits and electronic components to meet the needs of businesses. As an ISO 9001 and 14001 certified company, we have created product lifecycle management programs specializing in re-use and re-distribution since 1979. BCD Electro’s focus is repurposing end-of-life products, surplus and obsolete electronic components back to operations for reuse, remarketing electronic components to generate extra revenue and recycling electronic components into new product. For more information on how your company is complying and what resources are available to you, please contact Bob Harris at bharris@bcdelectro.,com, or 214 630 4298 .Bob Harris, PresidentBCD ElectroDallas TX